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The PR-Advertising gap

The world's best marketers clearly understand the value that Public Relations can add to their brand. More importantly they understand the limitations of PR and therefore are able to use it more effectively. See Richard Branson talk about PRUnfortunately, there are not that many well-grounded marketers who understand the subtler aspects and nuances of public relations. Usually most marketing professionals are off the mark by miles and they often overlap PR with the external manifestations of advertising. But then, PR is not even of the same DNA as Advertising, let alone being look-alikes. Unlike advertising, PR has far more layers and factors impacting the outcomes. Speaking about the two in the same breath is as aberrant as is comparing mud with mud-pie. Public relations requires subtle skills, advertising relishes blatant outbursts; PR purrs while advertising rumbles; PR builds trust and credibility, while advertising moves the audiences to action. To make the most of these tools it is essential that they are used in the right mix, and not confused the results that they can bring.

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Recently, I interviewed a young journalist wanting to turn to public relations as a profession and I asked her two questions. The first, why she joined journalism received an appropriate, though expected answer - 'To give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves', followed quickly by 'It is perhaps the only profession in which you can be fearless and work towards correcting the wrongs you see in society.'

I gave her a smile, and lodged my second question. 'Why then do you want to shift to Public Relations?' She remorsefully replied, 'I'm disillusioned.'

That conversation, in a nutshell, sums up most of mainstream journalism today. Viewed from the outside, most see a brave, determined journalist standing up for the truth, upholding the 4D principles above all - Detect, Discern, Doubt and Demand. When seen from the inside, most journalists have experienced persuasion - bordering on mild coercion disguised as 'advice', management encou…

If there's a commodity that perishes as swiftly as it is created, it is news. The longer it takes to create, the higher its longevity and by corollary, news produced by the second, dies by the second.

We want our gratifications without any waiting period, we want to gulp down our food, build instant abs, get rich immediately and also know everything now. We are also anxious to know more and more, and information has become a status-according social currency.Fortunately, acquisition of knowledge does not have a finish line and so it behaves quite differently from instant abs or instant noodles.

In this hurried age, magazines play an important role by balancing societal myopia with perspective; need-for-speed with understanding, and anxiety with patience. The magazines analyze and opine like the elders of society - and hence also play the role of elders in the information society. In an age when every new opinion becomes news, magazines bring perspective through considered informat…

(also appeared in Firstpost) The recent Tata boardroom spat has
spawned many faceted discussions, and one of these has been on the appointment
and role Independent Directors – an aspect that not only concerns governance,
but also Board room expertise. Like many, I spent a considerable amount of time
wondering what the boardroom discussions would be like, extrapolating from the
little information that was available. To emphasize the need for expertise in the board, the rules
for appointment of independent directors of a board under the MCA Act require
the independent director to possess appropriate skills, experience and knowledge in one or more fields of finance,
law, management, sales, marketing, administration, research, corporate
governance, technical operations or other disciplines related to the company's
business. It is quite clear that expertise (and not just experience) is one
of the necessary qualities of the board. The question that kept coming back to
me was whether it …